Page 40 - 2011 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2011

! &&+ 2 !%!+!- ,! TV Skeptic: 'Bigfoot: The abilities such as telepathy and clairvoyance. Definitive Guide' Rhine and his wife Louisa tried to develop research into "parapsychology". They used a set of cards, originally called Zener Cards, now called ESP cards, which bear the symbols of a The Los Angeles Time circle, square, wavy lines, cross and a star. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com There are five cards of each in a pack of 25. In an experiment, the "sender" looks at a I will never forget my first encounter series of cards while the "receiver" guesses the with Bigfoot. It was early one morning when I symbols. was in fifth grade. The school day had just Rhine argued that when his subjects started, and my desk was near the window, scored highly, it could only be expect by chance where I had a clear view of the adjacent forest once in a thousand. and the rugged mountains beyond. Our teacher The experiments faced several was handing out some reading material when I criticisms, namely that the statistics were not saw him. Big, hairy and scary, right there on the reliable, that only favourable results were cover of the Weekly Reader. From that moment, published and that "fraud" was possible. Bigfoot captured my imagination. I read that Computers are now being used to determine little booklet from cover to cover, believing ESP. every word. have learned that a Hollywood special-effects 1940 – Rhine, JG Pratt and others at But you grow up and things change. On expert claims that he provided Patterson with Duke author a review of card-guessing Tuesday, the History Channel aired "Bigfoot: the costume, and that a friend of the filmmakers experiments conducted since 1882 – 'Extra- The Definitive Guide," a documentary that says he wore the costume over football shoulder Sensory Perception After Sixty Years', which promised to hold Bigfoot up to the standards of pads. Patterson was shooting a film about becomes recognised as the first meta-analysis in modern science. This is not the first time Bigfoot at the time, and it is not unusual for science. More than 60 per cent of the results science has taken on Bigfoot, but so far, it documentaries to depict Bigfoot using a human indicate the presence of ESP ability. seems, whenever the Bigfoot legend and facts in costume. What is unusual, though, is to 1953 – Report by Rhine on the ability of have squared off, the legend has won. release that footage with the claim that it is a dogs to detect landmines through ESP. After a This Canadian-British production genuine sighting. training period of more than three months, two brought together a panel of scientists to analyze "Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide" rarely dogs in California successfully found mines six reports of "Bigfoot" sightings from around the rises above the typical crypto-zoology out of seven times without any sensory cues. world. Unfortunately, the scientists start off on documentary. A big problem is the overblown 1964 – Scientists demonstrate that the wrong foot, with a rather misleading script. While the scientists are careful and through use of hypnosis, there is a success rate argument. precise in their language and claims, the of 64 per cent. The team points to the recent discovery narration goes far beyond the scope of the 1971 – Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Dean of the Bili Ape, a large relative of the science and reality. Mitchell allegedly conducted secret ESP chimpanzee that lives in the Bili forest of the When it comes to Bigfoot, the only thing experiments during the mission with Congo. They claim that if a new species as large definitive in the documentary is that nothing is collaborators on Earth. Following 'sleep time' as this has managed to live undetected for so definitive. The five scientists cannot reach a on the ship, he concentrated on a series of long, other species of giant ape-like creatures consensus. Two are "open-minded," another symbols and shapes on a clipboard. Four men might still be out there. two are skeptical and one is "hopeful." But it on Earth tried to 'receive' them. The problem with that claim is that it still isn't clear if the panel is speaking 1974 – Ganzfeld test findings published was well known that chimpanzees lived in that specifically about Bigfoot or simply the idea by Charles Honorton and Sharon harper in the same forest. The discovery was not that they that there may be a large, undiscovered primate Journal of the American Society for Psychical existed, but that they are so different -- larger species roaming somewhere in the world. Research. The 30-minute procedure involves and darker in color -- as to constitute a new So, if you're keeping score, mark this two subjects, one the sender and the other the species. (Most new species discovered by battle between science and the Bigfoot receiver. Both persons lie on chairs, eyes scientists, including those found by team mythology as a draw. The only victory here is covered with halved ping pong balls so the member Anna Nekaras, fall into that same one for exploiting the public's interest in this visual field was solid white. White noise was category.) mythical creature.[] played in the background. Subjects were asked The comparison between Bigfoot and to free-associate out loud while their responses the Bili Ape would be relevant if we knew about Extra Sensory Perception: were put on to a magnetic tape. In another room, a smaller primate, say a "Mediumfoot" or a brief history the telepathic sender chose at random a set of "Smallfoot," roaming the Pacific Northwest and slides to look at and try to send the subject. discovered that the larger specimen was actually The Telegraph After the experiment, the subject was asked to a different species. http://www.telegraph.co.uk guess which of the reels, of a group of four, had As part of their analysis, the scientists been the target. plotted Bigfoot sightings on a "global The concept of Extra Sensory 1984 – Test results from 10 different interactive map" that is never shown in detail on Perception has been around for more than a laboratories find superior results. Hypnosis the program. But the map does illustrate one century but was only popularised in the 1930s. proved to enhance ESP ability more than key point -- the number of sightings 1870 – Term 'Extra Sensory Perception' anything else. dramatically increased following the 1967 allegedly coined by the British explorer Sir 1988 – Psychologist Gertrude release of the "Patterson film," the famous Richard Burton. Schmeidler finds that higher scores are obtained footage showing a few seconds of an alleged 1882 – 'Telepathy' – mind reading – when the experimenter was warmer and friendly Bigfoot. formally introduced after research undertaken to the subject than a cold, formal one. Dr The best part of the program comes by the Society of Psychical Research in Britain, Schmeidler, in her research, also divided when the scientists disagree about the and in 1884 by similar organisations in the US. subjects into "sheep", who believed ESP might authenticity of the Patterson film. Two are 1892 – Dr Paul Joire, a French work, and "goats", who did not. Her studies certain it was a hoax, while another two believes researcher used the term ESP to describe the found that "sheep" scores were generally above it was an actual creature, arguing that the ability of a person who had been hypnotised or expectation and "goats" scored below. costume was too sophisticated for an amateur was in a trance-like state to sense things without 2011 – Academic paper argues that filmmaker. Meanwhile, one remains undecided. using ordinary senses. people may be able to see into the future to be It's too bad they didn't do a Google search on the 1930s – Duke University psychology JB published by the respected Journal of Patterson film. In a few seconds, they would Rhine popularises the term to denote psychic Personality and Social Psychology.